A solution for traffic circle blowouts

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Ontario's farmers are increasingly uneasy about the mounting number of roundabouts on rural roads. 

Some of these circular intersections have caused flat tires and visibility problems, says Janet Harrop, Wellington Federation of Agriculture president.

But the Wellington federation, partnering with Triton Engineering Services Limited, the engineers of a new roundabout in Arthur, appears to have found the answer. Why not supply road developers with farm equipment turn specification templates?

Wellington member Greg Dineen, who farms in Kenilworth and is also a licensed engineer, says that, typically, commercial vehicle manufacturing associations supply turn templates to road builders. "We don't have that on the farm equipment side because road travel has just never (previously) been that big a part of the business."

Today, farmers "run the widest, longest combinations out there," and are more frequently on the road, he says. Yet "we find ourselves not having any type of industry connection to the decision-makers."  

In November, the Wellington federation set out to rectify the situation by calling on the provincial federation to lobby the Canada East Equipment Dealers Association to supply the templates. Delegates at the annual meeting of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) annual meeting eagerly rallied around the resolution and in December the board adopted it.

Next steps, says Neil Currie, OFA general manager, are to reach out and obtain the templates from the equipment dealers and hand them over to Ontario Ministry of Transportation road engineers.

The moral of this story? If your problem is circular and you're searching for a way out, best to ask a farmer. BF